


I could love you forever, (and I have already have.)

by baby345



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: A soul mate AU where you keep falling in love over time with your soulmate, Akaashi Keiji & Kozume Kenma Friendship, Domestic Fluff, Established Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Minor Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, POV Akaashi Keiji, Pro Volleyball Player Bokuto Koutarou, Romantic Fluff, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, True Love, falling in love over a period of time, they are soul mates your honor, very little angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:55:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28399581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baby345/pseuds/baby345
Summary: sometimes he’ll lay awake at night and try and imagine how or when they meet,  he had never really known people to have multiple words on them unless they had more than one soulmate, and he wondered if that was the case for him? Was there more than- one person out there to who he was destined to give his heart?  But he knew the answer to that question before it ever crossed his mind, it had to be a no. He didn’t know how or why but he knew that the person who was his other half was just that big-hearted, that the words that kissed his skin were all from one person.A soulmate AU where the words that your soulmate would say when they fall in love with you decorate your skin, but for one Akaashi Keiji his body is decorated in them because there's never just been one moment he falls in love with one Bokuto koutarou, it's a continuous thing that happens over and over.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji & Kozume Kenma, Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 10
Kudos: 106





	I could love you forever, (and I have already have.)

**Author's Note:**

> This is more just me just falling in love with this ship and how amazing they are lol please enjoy

For all his life, his body was covered in words. Some ran down the length of his spine, others twirled up his foot, and lovingly covered his ankle.

Some of the words were easy enough for others to see, like the ones that covered his dominant hand, and that curled up behind his ear while others were hidden for his eyes only, like the words that covered the front of his thighs. 

He had always been fascinated by the words that decorated his body, he spent hours in the mirrors tracing them with light fingers and trying to figure out what some of them meant. Some were easy to decipher like your _tosses are the best!_

It was easy enough to figure out that he knew that most likely he’ll interact with his soulmate while playing volleyball, And _of course, I’m in love with you, who else would it be?_ Let him know that his soulmate was going to be a romantic at heart, someone who wore his emotions on his sleeves and wasn’t afraid to tell Keiji how loved he was. 

Sometimes he’ll lay awake at night and try and imagine how or when they meet, will his soulmate be happy with him? Will he be okay with how quiet he was and can they see through his mask of nonchalance?

Can he meet him halfway when he struggled to show affection in another way besides the quiet way he had grown accustomed to? Would his soul mate be wild and free? Or meek and polite? 

Or maybe he had more than one? he had never really known people to have multiple words on them unless they had more than one soulmate, and he wondered if that was the case for him? Was there more than- one person out there to who he was destined to give his heart? 

But he knew the answer to that question before it ever crossed his mind, it had to be a no. He didn’t know how or why but he knew that the person who was his other half was just that big-hearted, that the words that kissed his skin were all from one person. 

The questions ran through his mind till he got exhausted. While the thought of loving somebody as free scared him, he felt hope flutter in his heart, somebody who would be the complete opposite of the love he was used to receiving was going to be like a fresh breath of air.

He spent all three years of his middle school years hoping to get a glimpse of his soulmate. While he heard different variations of the words on his body, they never felt _right,_ at every volleyball game he played, and every player he talked too, he hoped to feel that spark that he read online and heard his peers gush about, but it never happened and he feared that it wouldn’t happen for a while. 

Until he saw _him_ . A second-year ace who was a beast on the court when he went on a simple school visit to Fukurōdani Academy. The boy _bokuto Koutarou_ his mind supplied, was gorgeous and ferocious.

Gold eyes were wide in excitement and in every jump, every spike, Akaashi could see how much much power he held in his frame. 

Just from watching him give his all on the court, he knew that he needed to be by his side. He accepted their offer the next day. 

His first day of tryouts has him standing with the other first years as they watched their upperclassmen line up and introduce themselves first. He barely listened to the others, he only had eyes for the tall second year with the pretty dimples and the brightest smile. 

He felt butterflies erupt in his stomach when the boy stepped forward and stuck a thumb to his chest to proudly declare:

“ Hey hey hey! I'm super excited to meet you all! I’m a second year, and I’ll be your ace! The names Bokuto Koutarou!”

His excited yell has a couple of other members on the team laugh along, and did a good job easing the nerves a couple of other first years had. But all it did for Keiji was cause his throat to close up and the beginning of a shiver to line his spine.

_How could I already be half in love with somebody I just met?_

Once introductions had been done for their senpais, it was the first years’ turn. A couple went before Akaashi finally stepped forward and bent at the waist for a short and informal bow. 

“ Hello, my name is Akaashi Keiji. I play the position of setter and I recently graduated from Mori Junior Middle. Please take care of me.” 

Once he leaned up from his bow he gasped in shock, cause right in front of him was the same man who been occupying his thoughts. 

“ Wow, a setter! Do you mind tossing to me a couple of times Akaashi? Pretty please?” 

The taller man was even cuter up close with his straight white teeth and light freckles dotting his nose. Akaashi thought he’ll pass out just from being in his space.

He could hear a couple of other club members groan at the owl-like man pleading but all he could focus on was that the second year had grabbed one of his hands and kept it between both of his. He thanked every God he knew for his mask not cracking. 

“Sure bokuto-San.”

And as soon as the words had been uttered both of them shivered and their eyes got big, gunmetal and gold connected. It was like time stood still and all he was focused on was them in that moment. He felt the light feeling of a spark tracing his thigh where he knew those fateful words resided. 

_It’s him!_

_“_ It’s.. you. _”_

Bokuto smile threatened to break his face as he let go of the shorter boy's hand to squish him in a hug that resulted in lifting him off his feet. All Akaashi could do was lock his arms around the older boy’s neck, but he couldn’t quite smother his little smile. His face was on fire, and he knew if he looked in the mirror it’ll be red as a tomato, but he was just so _happy._

He could see out of the corner of his eye the other boys looking over at them but he didn’t care, he had more important things to focus on, Like the fact, he just found his _soulmate_.

“ it’s you! I can’t believe I get the pretty new setter as my soulmate! I’m so happy!”

“I as well, bokuto-San I look forward to getting to know you.”

* * *

And know him he did. It was like they couldn’t get enough of each other, every day was a lesson on the other, he learned the inner workings of one bokuto Koutarou, what made him tick, his favorite things, what he loved most and what he hated. Love came much faster than he anticipated. 

Loving bokuto was the easiest thing he had ever done. They became inseparable, you couldn’t see Akaashi without the 2nd year and vice versa. If the taller man wasn’t waiting eagerly for Akaashi to escort him to their spot for lunch, then Akaashi was asking one of their teammates to fetch bokuto for him. They were two peas in a pod and everyday keiji found himself falling deeper and deeper in love with the older boy. 

He loved the way he seemed to brighten whenever Akaashi walked into the room, loved how eager and excited he was to tell anybody and everybody that Akaashi was his soulmate. 

He could probably write a whole series of novels on how bokuto was the sun of his life and how better his life had become with the other boy in it. The gossip he heard over the years on how it felt to meet and be with your soulmate didn’t hold a candle to the truth. 

Being with the ace was like basking in the warmth of the sun after being without it for so long. Bokuto loved him fiercely and gently. He knew he was young and he’ll probably be embarrassed to admit any of this, but the love he shared for bokuto felt like it could expand lifetimes and galaxies. It felt older than them, and timeless, like maybe he loved him in another life before this and other lives as well. 

“Hey bokuto-San?” Akaashi asked one day while they were walking home. (Another thing that they always found themselves doing, cause either way the other was going to find themselves over at the other’s place.)

Bokuto's bright gold eyes turned to him to give him his full attention and even squeezed his hand for good measure. (Another thing he liked about bokuto, he always gave him 100% of his attention, no matter how insignificant the talk.) 

“Did you ever wonder about who your soulmate was going to be?” 

Bokuto closed his eyes and hummed to show he was thinking about the question. With a Shake of his head, he opened his eyes and tugged the younger man along, hitching their book bags higher. (He insisted on carrying both of them, said it was the gentleman like thing to do. ) 

“Sometimes I did! Especially with all the words I had on me, but then I figured that whoever my soulmate was, there was no way I could possibly do them justice.” 

Here he slyly turned and smiled at his boyfriend. 

“ I was right of course, my Keiji is prettier than I could ever imagine.” 

He had blushed all the way down to his chest that day, and bokuto never let him forget that.

* * *

It was like they spent their whole lives waiting for that right person to come along. Akaashi found himself smiling a little bit more, and even laughing just a little more freely, while bokuto, he noticed, seemed to come out of his moods faster and even managed to think before doing. 

Some nights they would spend hours tracing their words on each other, Bokuto's calloused fingers a whisper on pale skin, he’ll kiss and lightly rub the words as if he was afraid they smudge and disappear forever. 

While Keiji just liked to examine them, and let his eyes follow along the path they made on darker skin. He was always so curious, wanting to know the words that would be said over their lifetime.

He loved that bokuto's words were mainly on his back and chest, their declarations of devotion and love all spread out for his eyes only.

“ hey kaashi?” 

The brunette shifted in bokuto’s arms to let him know he was listening. 

The bigger man leaned down and kissed him softly. Poured all the love he held into it. 

“I’m so glad it was you.” 

“Me too.” He murmured shyly.

* * *

His first year and bokuto’s second year was spent studying and teaching each other, spent laughing, kissing till their lips bruised, touching and drowning the other in their adoration. By the time keiji’s second year and bokuto final and third one rolled around, They were an unstoppable pair, solid and sturdy.

So when bokuto asked Akaashi to be his vice-captain, it felt like more than just a simple question, it held more weight then such a question should have, but when he said yes, it felt like a promise. 

That was not to say that it was all sunshine and rainbows, they had their fair share of tears and fights, nights of tense silence and angry words thrown at each other. 

“This is a great opportunity bokuto-San! You can’t throw your whole life away for me!” 

“That’s two years I wouldn’t be able to see you Akaashi! You can’t ask me to do that!” 

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you, that you are taking this opportunity! This is all you ever wanted kou, don’t let me hold you back.. I’ll still be here when you come back.” Keiji whispered and he could see the moment resignation had set on those broad shoulders.

He was putting on a brave face but in the end, he didn’t want to tell bokuto bye. But he’ll be damned if he stood in the way of the man’s dreams. 

_Look after my heart, I left it with you_. Hurt like he had been stabbed when bokuto had cooed them on his trembling lips. Those were probably the least favorite words on his body, only because he’ll always remember how his body quivered and almost gave out. But he had to let his soulmate go. 

But the truth was,Akaashi Keiji had never been good at goodbyes. Not when he was 15 and watching his captain, his ace, his soulmate cross that stage for the last time, not when he had to tell the third years goodbye as they left the club in his hands.

Not when he has to say goodbye himself, and definitely not when the night after bokuto proposed to him, he has to kiss his soulmate goodbye as he heads off to training for the next two years. 

It never got any easier. So he threw himself into his work, told himself that the faster he finished his studies the faster he could be at the other man's side again. 

Sometimes, when the loneliness got too much for him, where the once a day phone calls weren’t enough and his anxiety threatened to overwhelm him with the what-ifs, he’ll stand in front of the mirror and look at one bokuto koutarou’s love letter to him, and remind himself that the fates have put them together, they were destined. 

So a little thing such as distance was insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Because this is just one more obstacle for them to overcome. But it still hurt sometimes. His words would burn as if to remind him that his soulmate was hundred of miles away, being a star and that he was left in the shadows. 

_Look after my heart, I left it with you._

“I don’t wanna be left behind.” He confessed to Kenma one day, the both of them had become close after they had both been the last ones standing when their other halves left. 

Kenma patted his hand in comfort.

“Akaashi, bokuto could never leave you behind. It’ll be like leaving his heart. I'm sure if you talked to him about it, he’ll tell you the same.” 

But he could never tell bokuto that, he knew if he did the older man would never leave again. His captain (always his captain), his _soulmate_ , his ace _,_ had always been weirdly attuned to his emotions.

While everybody else saw a polite and nonchalant mask that he had spent years cultivating, bokuto looked past all his defenses straight into his soul, he soothed the aches and bruises that tried to make a home there. It was like sometimes the other man seemed to know what he needed before he did. 

He forgets that while he spent all that time studying bokuto, learning the man and how he operated, the pro volleyball player was doing the same to him. 

“Keiji?” 

Gunmetal colored eyes connected as best as they could with gold colored ones, the connection had particularly bad tonight, so all he saw was a pixelated version of the love of his life.

“Yes bokuto-San?” 

The dueled color haired man seemed to melt at his cool tone. He smiled bright and big for his fiancé and continued to babble on.

“Ji you’ll have to start calling me by my first name! It’s going to get really confusing to everybody else why you're addressing me by our shared last name.” 

“My apologies bokuto-San, it’s a habit that I’m afraid I still haven’t broken out of.” 

“Well you better start! Cause I need everybody to address us as the bokutos! And for both of us to look when we hear bokuto-San!” 

“Sap.” He teased. “You’re such a hopeless romantic.”

“Well who wouldn’t be a hopeless romantic when they have you to sap over? I did the impossible and bagged the ever mysterious former Akaashi Keiji soon to be bokuto Keiji! That’s better then any Medal I could bring home, any ball I could spike!” 

And he’ll shiver because there goes another sentence on his body that let him know that they both had fallen for each other all over again. Sometimes he like to pretend that the distance between them was back to just down the street instead of halfway across the world.

  
  


It was so easy to pretend when they stayed on the phone like this, pretend that it was just like they were still in high school. Where even though he saw bokuto everyday without fail, if they weren’t at each other house they were on the phone, and Akaashi would be hopelessly smitten as the captain recounted his day to his vice captain, even if Keiji had been there to witness it all himself.

But then that dreaded goodbye would come and he’ll remember that he was going to bed alone once more. He missed him so much that sometimes his soul ached as it knew a piece of it wasn’t in reaching distance. 

He missed waking up to wild curls and warmth, to loud snores and his blanket being stolen. For all his years he obsessively devoured any and all articles and stories on how having a soulmate felt, none of them spoke about the absolute _grief_ that came over you when your soulmate was no longer in your orbit.

They didn’t talk about the empty space you consistently reached out for, the head tilt you did automatically when you came home because you expected a sloppy kiss to be placed there. 

They don’t tell you how it feels to be left in the cold. 

He learned another lesson doing those two years without his other half, one he’ll never forget: this apartment was not home to him without bokuto there too.

He touches the words on the palm of his hand that says _we are the protagonists of the world_. And longed for the same feeling those words gave him when they were first uttered.

The feeling of belonging. 

* * *

The day bokuto comes home, Akaashi nearly falls out. It’s a quiet night, and for once his able to go to bed early, no deadlines to meet, no papers to write and he could safely put off the last final he been working on to the side. The weekend was reserved for no anxiety gnawing at the edges of his subconscious, and no wallowing over missing his star.

He wanted to only focus on the good and stubbornly decided that this weekend was for enjoying what he had, not what he was missing. For the first time, looking at his words didn't sink his heart, it lifted it. 

  
  


_Some days, I look around and realize all that I wanted is right here at the tips of my fingers._

  
But nothing could make his heart sing like knowing that he got to talk to the volleyball player. His fiancé had sounded so excited when they finally got on the phone, even when he practically had to shout to be heard over all the noise in his background.

Keiji was curious about what could possibly wind the owl like man up enough that even over the phone Keiji can hear him bursting at the seams, but he brushed it off, the multi-colored haired man was always running on pure energy and practically shining, so it wasn’t surprising that he could still sound chipper that late into the evening. 

“What’s got you so cheerful tonight?” 

Bokuto chortled. “Can’t a man be happy to talk to his beautiful fiancé?” 

And he's gotten so many shivers at this point that he barely even gasps anymore when the words are said and that cool wave of love wash over him. He falls in love with kou by his smile alone, so of course his words are enough for his soul to completely surrender itself. 

“Hm. True, tell me about your day?” 

The brunette grinned as he heard bokuto tell all the funny things that happened at training that day, and how he wishes Akaashi was there too and then everything would be perfect! _Don’t you agree Akaashi?_

The soothing tones of his soulmate are enough for him to close his eyes and drift off, bokuto’s babbling as if he was right next to keiji. He could almost picture the way kou would rub his back and playfully twirl his curls around thick fingers.

He could feel the heat of his fiancé's body seeping through his bones and warming him to the core, bokuto was always a walking furnace and it was amazing for hugs and cold winter nights.

He tightened his hold on bokuto’s pillow and if he concentrated, he could still smell the taller man’s cologne combined with their favorite detergent.

He fell asleep feeling content like he never did before. 

* * *

“Ke..ji? Ji I’m..home.”

The brunette furrowed his brow, as his subconscious struggle to stay asleep. He sniffled and tried to curl up into a tighter ball. Didn’t realize that he wasn’t alone until he felt familiar hands curve around his waist, like a puzzle piece clicking into place.

His eyes immediately opened and darted to his right, to koutarou’s side. While his vision was blurry without his glasses and the dark didn’t help, he could make out an outline of a masculine form. 

“Kou?” He croaked out, scared it was a dream. 

“Hey beautiful.” 

A sob caught in his throat, he wasted no time throwing his arms around the other and going Pilant into strong arms and a firm chest. Kisses were laid anywhere the man could reach, heard him shushing him and telling him how much he missed him and loved him. 

“Your home, your home.” He babbled over and over again, his hands twisted into his shirt, he never wanted to let go. 

Bokuto tenderly lifted his face up and kissed him. It wasn’t anything more than a press of his lips, but it said more than his words ever could. It tasted like reverence and Awe, like being reunited with that special someone, like the first taste of a cool drink after being parched. 

When they finally broke apart, they were panting harshly. 

“I missed you more than you’ll ever know, this place didn’t feel like home without you.” 

Bokuto laid the softest of kisses on his forehead. 

“Oh trust me, I know what you mean, It took everything in me to continue on and not ditch the whole stupid training and jump on the nearest plane back here.” 

The slighter man sniffled and laced their hands together, and was pleased that they still fit together perfectly. He was finally going to utter the words that he had always seen spiraled so sweetly on bokuto’s hip. 

Welcome home soulmate.” 

And when bokuto answered him: 

“It feels good to be home.” 

  
  


He knew he meant it cause his soul told him so. 


End file.
